Adolecent Literacy

The NCTE continues to addressed the issue of literacy amoung adolecents.  The problem grows as thousands of teenagers drop out of schools every day.  Literacy is a complex activity that involves deep understanding through reading, writing, speaking, listening, and critical thinking within rhetorical contexts. Literacy Learning is a lifelong enterprise.  Individuals do not learn to read and write, once and for all, but again and again, in contexts of meaningful use.  Adolescents and young adults read and write for multiple purposes and audiences and in a variety of situations, many of which are located in digital, multi-media environments, many of which are located outside of schoolroom walls. As a personal and social process of building comprehension and making and articulating meaning, literacy of adolescents and young adults is integrally linked to academic excellence.
 
NCTE policies and actions in regard to adolescent and young adult literacy recognize that as adolescents’ literacies and needs are highly varied, the kinds of rich, engaging literacy practices needed must also be varied, and therefore must go beyond one-size-fits-all recommendations.  Likewise, while some policies and actions may be focused on specific populations (English Language Learners, struggling readers, young men) or types of literacies (digital, critical, cultural), the ultimate goal is increasing literacy skills for every adolescent.
   
If educators are to provide adolescents and young adults effective literacy instruction in schools, they must use the literacy experiences that students bring with them to school as starting points for instruction that enriches and extends students’ competencies and knowledge.  To do this, teachers must be aware of the variety of literacy experiences that students bring with them to the schoolroom, and they must know how to build upon their students’ prior reading and writing experiences to extend and enrich them.